Start by pointing out to your father and directly to your many fans in red states the links between extreme weather and climate change.

While your interest in climate change titillates environmentalists, what we really need is not an emissary from the Trump administration to speak nicely to liberals about climate change; we need an emissary to the Trump administration to talk some sense into the government’s leaders and party faithful.

That message should start at the top. While few expect President-elect Trump to micromanage policy, what he says on the subject can circumscribe the mischief on climate his appointees in the cabinet can get up to. He can also begin to win hearts and minds by speaking credibly to his voter base on climate change the way no liberal or scientist can.

You can bet that the billions of farmers around the world whose crops wither in droughts and whose rickety houses wash away in floods know full well the weather is changing for the worse. And because the poor suffer from climate the first and the most, and have the fewest resources to adapt, they’re exactly right that the world’s rich bear responsibility.

We could all have an academic discussion about this and respectfully disagree if not for the diplomatic and national security consequences of America spurning climate help for developing countries, which is exactly what your father plans to do, among proposals to eliminate all climate change programs. A few billion dollars in public dollars for international climate programs—less than one-tenth of one percent of the annual federal budget—buys the U.S. an astonishing amount of global goodwill to support your father’s international agenda. Here is the negotiating space for your dad to make some of his beloved deals—don’t let him prematurely fritter it away. And certainly don’t let him try to tear up the Paris Agreement. At the recent climate conference in Morocco, an idea circulated to impose a carbon tax on exported American goods if it pulls out of Paris. Is this the environment in which your father wants to rebuild American industry and achieve international recognition?

We know your father listens to you, and to other people he trusts. We also know he has a keen sense of what people want and how to make them sense he cares about them. Climate change is a great tool for him to achieve some easy wins, from the local to the global. Even if he’s not ready to become a walking advertisement for climate action, he can refrain from damaging actions that undermine his personal credibility and negotiating space, and that of America as a whole. Keep in mind that if his cabinet and the Republican Congress make good on their plans to dismantle all of Obama’s sensible climate policies, no amount of pretty rhetoric will undo the damage in the eyes of the world. But if he surprises people and you help him become an unexpected climate champion, not just the liberals, but the global community, and the planet you leave to your children, will be very grateful.

Andrew Eil managed climate change foreign assistance programs at the U.S. State Department from 2010 to 2014 and is now an independent consultant in New York City.

Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the publisher of Observer Media.